The Hope of the World



I confess:  I’m a conservative Republican.  This morning I am disturbed by yesterday’s results that have Barak Obama reelected for a second term.  I am deeply dismayed that the majority of people in our nation have embraced a party and candidate that militantly defend a woman’s right to murder her baby and the abominable idea of homosexual marriage.  Though I do not buy the entire Republican rhetoric and platform, I believe that bigger government will not solve our problems but only make them worse.  I think our current fiscal policies will bankrupt us.  The Obama administration’s foreign policy, I believe, makes our nation less secure. 

All of this, except for the pro-life and marriage issues, is debatable among Christians along party lines.  I’m willing to grant that and understand there will be differences of opinion between God’s people.  I don’t see, however, how any Bible-believing Christian can support the so-called “pro-choice” and homosexual agenda that the Democratic Party aggressively promotes. 

How did we get here?  Read Robert Bork’s brilliant Slouching Towards Gomorrah for starters.  The mainstream media created Obama’s presidency and is primarily responsible for re-electing him.  It is not a level playing field.  Bork explains the reality of social engineering in his book as he documents liberalism’s progressive takeover of higher education, entertainment, and the media since the middle of the twentieth century.

These are critical days in which we live.  As difficult as they may be, we are privileged to live during this time.  We should learn that the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God are not the same; they are not even complementary.  The Church has always compromised its divine mission when it allied itself with the world’s systems – whether it was the Holy Roman Empire that ruled Europe for over seven hundred years or the American evangelical alliance with the Republican Party that has marginalized our message for the last thirty years. Jesus told Pilate, the puppet ruler of perhaps the greatest superpower the world has ever known, “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).  He then defeated the evil powers that crucified him by his resurrection three days later.  As people who have been graciously invited into Christ’s kingdom, we must remember, “He made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:9-10). 

I believe that we have the privilege and the obligation to be politically engaged as Christian citizens.  But being overcome by dismay is not living by faith.  Romney certainly isn’t Lord of all and neither is Obama.  America, regardless of what Reagan said, is not the hope of the world.  Only Jesus is Lord and his enterprise, the Church, offers the Hope this world needs. 

There are two kingdoms.  Only one of them is eternal.  Let our loyalty and our confidence rest there. 

 

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2012 at 4:10 PM

    Well said, Bob----however it is difficult for me to not be overcome with dismay at this time. And I do differ from you on the point that, in a certain sense (though not an ENTIRE or eternal sense) America has been the hope of the world. Poland, for instance, looked to America as an example of what could be possible, it gave them hope, and the help we provided to topple tyranny there meant everything to them. I think that our traditionally American emphasis on freedoms such as religion and speech were key points, and a certain Judeo-Christian influence shed light. Now that is declining significantly, and certainly it is up to us to be salt and light however we can. But it is sad to me to see the decline.

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    Replies
    1. Bob MyersNovember 8, 2012 at 6:21 AM

      Pam,

      I share your perspective. God has blessed America and I believe it was because we WERE founded on Judeo-Christian values, even if there was a good deal of Deist thinking in many of our founders' minds. I don't buy a lot of the revisionist history that denies our Christian roots. Perhaps even more importantly, the First (pre-Revolution) and Second Great Awakenings deeply shaped our national soul. The Revivalist Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also shaped us.

      But we get into trouble, I beleive, when we equate America's agenda with the Kingdom of God. As good as America has been, we have never been the full expression of God's agenda on earth. As America moves further away from her historic Christian values, we as the Church have the opportunity to distinguish ourselves as people of God's Kingdom rather than that of the world.

      I share your grief and sadness over the state of our nation. You can see that in my post. And I'm grateful for your reminder of the inspiration that the Poles received from us. Even in our sorry condition, the Kenyans told me of how they look to us as a nation because they perceive us as good.

      No one knows the future. But God has put us here at this time for His reasons. Like Esther, who can say that we haven't been put here for such a time as this?

      Delete

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